Competition Time As Students Learn Rhyme

Budding poets and performers didn’t skip a beat as they committed their favourite verses to memory and shared them with students and staff as part of a national poetry competition.

The Poetry By Heart event saw youngsters from KS3 and KS4 present poems they had memorised in the hope of being selected to go forward into the next round of the contest.

Pupils taking part had to learn two poems – one published before 1914 and another, more modern, work.

Students from Year 7 to 10 took part and were measured on fluency, confidence and understanding of the poem.

In KS4, the joint winners were Lauren Ward and Lucy Price, with Michael Madanhi, Blessing Kwabena and Veeda Khoramrooz as runners-up. Meanwhile, in KS3, Jamie Poole was the winner, with Manjot Multani, Amy-Louise Clears, Kanyin Adeyani and Arshpreet Hothi impressing enough to be named runners-up.

The winners will have videos of their performances sent to the national judges who will select performers from across the country to vie for the Poetry By Heart crown.

Miss Wild, who is the school’s Reading Champion, said: “The standards were exceptionally high and we wish the winners the very best of luck in the next stage of the competition.”